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Former Vice President Joe Biden’s PAC ran an online contest for small-dollar donors to win a trip to one of his campaign stops this fall and advertised on Facebook throughout the fall and after Election Day. | Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

Former Vice President Joe Biden raised more money for a PAC that supports Democrats in 2018 than any of his likely White House competitors did. But unlike many of them, he spent the lion’s share of that haul on himself.

Biden’s PAC gave Democratic candidates just a quarter of the more than $2 million he raised and spent during the midterms. At the same time, he spent half a million dollars on websites and digital ads that could help him bolster his online presence and raise money from small donors for a 2020 primary campaign, and more of his PAC funds went to travel and other expenses.

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POLITICO analyzed the midterms activity of seven PACs affiliated with likely 2020 Democratic contenders to see how they used these groups, which face few restrictions on how money is raised and spent, to quietly lay the groundwork for potential White House runs.

Some in that cohort — including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has never run a nationwide campaign— curried favor within the party by giving six and seven figures to candidates or state parties, disclosures with the Federal Election Commission show. Biden, who already has a national profile but has not run for office in years, put less emphasis on earning chits and more on investments in digital infrastructure that he would urgently need to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.

“It’s been fascinating to watch some of these candidates testing the waters without making too big a ripple,” said Mike McCauley, an Obama campaign and administration alumnus and Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “Whether it’s through their PAC dollars and time and attention, or their early outreach, the different methodologies each of them has relied on has been very telling.”

A national Democratic strategist who is not involved with any of the potential presidential contenders broke the candidates’ PAC strategies into two broad categories: “No. 1, those who are using it to further and build political structures, candidates and the party. And No. 2, others who are simply using it to fund travel, staff and research for their anticipated campaigns.”

The strategist said candidates who spent 20 or 30 percent of their PAC cash on other Democrats were using the groups as “basically a slush fund” for early campaign activities.

While so-called leadership PACs are ostensibly formed with the goal of supporting other Democrats, Biden spent the smallest percentage of his funds on others out of the seven potential contenders POLITICO analyzed. (Biden’s group did not register as a leadership PAC but described itself similarly, saying it was “dedicated to electing people who believe that this country is about dreaming big.”)

Warren gave out the most, about 85 percent of the total amount she spent, to other Democrats, followed by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. They were followed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (56 percent), Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (46 percent), Kamala Harris of California (37 percent) and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (36 percent).

Aides to many of the politicians said their PAC activity covers only a slice of their total midterms efforts, which in most cases also included direct contributions from their campaign committees to candidates, as well as fundraisers and emails on behalf of others. Most of the politicians provided internal numbers that could not be independently verified. Including these internal numbers, Warren’s total spending on other candidates’ behalf was the highest.

Spokespeople for Biden didn’t provide any comment on his 2018 PAC activity, but he has the highest name identification with voters and the strongest relationships within the party of any potential 2020 contender. Federal disclosures show he focused heavily on a different priority: building a profile online. Democrats expect the 2018 surge in small-dollar donations to continue in the presidential race, giving an advantage to candidates who can capitalize on it.

Biden reported expenses marked as “digital consulting,” “website development” and “email services.” Much of that business went to Blue State Digital, a firm founded by former campaign staff to President Barack Obama.

Biden’s PAC ran an online contest for small-dollar donors to win a trip to one of his campaign stops this fall and advertised on Facebook throughout the fall and after Election Day. Some of the ads promoted events that Biden headlined for candidates such as Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and featured photos of a smiling Biden. Many of them promoted Biden-themed T-shirts with slogans such as, “The malarkey stops here.”

Biden’s post-Labor Day campaign swings took him from the congressional battleground of Orange County, Calif., to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Parma, Ohio, concluding in Pittston, Pa., — for a total of 18 stops in the midterms homestretch.

Harris, too, placed a focus on fundraising, spending double the amount any other politician did on consultants who help politicians raise money and build relationships with big donors. Harris’ campaign did not elaborate on the spending.

On multiple occasions, Harris’ PAC spent big on fundraisers and hotels, too: She spent $21,000 in May 2017 for a fundraiser at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, a luxury hotel in La Jolla, Calif., overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and $7,700 paid to Martha’s Vineyard-based caterer Kitchen Porch following an event on the island Harris headlined last summer.

Harris contributed $680,500 from her PAC to other politicians and committees, roughly a third of the money she spent from her leadership PAC. Harris took 26 trips to 17 states on behalf of candidates during the midterms, traveling for a slew of House and Senate hopefuls and to early primary states including Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina and her home state of California.

Garcetti, whose biggest challenge over the coming year will be to increase his name recognition, mounted one of the biggest leadership PACs during the 2018 midterms, raising more than $2 million.

Ahead of a fall private dinner with 10 state party chairs, Garcetti loaned his city’s star power to a glitzy event featuring late night host Jimmy Kimmel and hip-hop producer DJ Khaled. There, he cut $100,000 checks to each of the party leaders from the first four primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — along with a carefully cultivated list that also included Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley called the money “an invaluable contribution to many of the state parties,” while Nancy Patton Mills, chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said it went to fund a successful state Senate race, as well as other down-ballot candidates who lost but plan to run again because of the party’s support.

“It’s really helped us build out our bench,” Patton Mills said.

Garcetti wasn’t the only one to shower parties with money. In October, Warren donated $50,000 to state parties with competitive midterm races. She also contributed $175,000 to top-target state legislative campaigns in Florida, Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, including $30,000 each to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Another $460,000 went to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and $105,000 to its House Democratic counterpart.

Booker paired $837,000 in midterms contributions to Democrats with 39 trips to 24 states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He made three trips each for Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who lost their races, and Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Ohio’s Brown, both of whom won.

Booker was also the keynote speaker for the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraising gala in Des Moines, and he cut checks to a host of candidates and state parties, ranging from Wisconsin to Arizona, in hopes of helping Democrats retake the Senate.

He also helped another, less-expected fundraising effort: the legal defense fund for Robert Menendez, the senior senator from New Jersey, whose corruption trial ended in a mistrial a year ago.

Booker’s PAC gave Menendez’s legal defense fund $10,000 in the fall of 2017, before the trial was over, and another $10,000 three months after it finished.